April 29, 2008

I think I would like to be in Amsterdam tomorrow. April 30th is Koninginnedag (Queen's Day) in the Netherlands, celebrated with orange food, banners, and "extreme amounts of orange clothing and creative accessories" to commemorate the queen's birthday.

And then there's the Battle of the Oranges in Ivrea, Italy which takes place during Carnival, 40 days before Lent. Apparently reenacting a historic insurrection, teams throw oranges at each other. A lot of oranges. I'm fascinated.

I was just thinking about Queensday and how this is going to be the first time in my life not being in Amsterdam. Gonna miss it. Much. It's always sooo much fun, i love the whole city turning into one large outdoor party and fleamarket!

Well, no doubt my Irish Catholic grandmother, who talks as though Oliver Cromwell just left Ireland yesterday, will kill me, but July 12th is the Battle of the Boyne, or Orangeman's Day in Northern Ireland.

Queensday is such a great day in The Netherlands. There are great concerts and lots of things to do in Amsterdam, but other towns and cities are equally festive. As a child I loved Queensday as the whole neighbourhood celebrated and there where tons of games for kids to do ending with a good helping of Poffertjes (nice tiny mini pancakes). MMmmmm.I miss home (living in London now).

Hi! I finally decided to leave you a message :) Did you know there was an Orange Revolution a few years back in Ukraine? whole bunch of orange colored flags and attire out there!for some folks it's sort of a holidayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ukraine_elections_massprotest_20041122.jpg

Wow, lots of interesting info in these comments, everybody. I remember the news reports about the Orange Revolution. Never heard of poffertjes, though. They sound lovely. Probably more delicious than strangely orange snacks :) Mahan, you are a constant source of obscure information. Thank you. (I should qualify that: it's probably not obscure to people who live in Northern Ireland.)

In Holland during soccer games everybody also dresses up in orange, throws orange confetti, etc. It gets pretty wild. I know it's not a real holiday, but over there soccer is pretty much as important as any holiday..

Hi Jess...again, not a holiday, but we just wrapped up the 2008 Orange Conference in Atlanta on April 30. I have been following your blog for a while just getting ideas because I'm the conference director for the Orange Conference. It's hosted by the reThink Group, and we're an organization that equips and trains churches about family ministry. It's the whole idea that if red represents the family (the color of blood and warmth) and yellow represents the church (like light), then when these two work together to reach the family, you get a brilliant, beautiful orange. Fun stuff...www.theorangeconference.com. Thanks for a great blog!Betsy

i'll never understand nor love a holiday, hate to burst the orange bubble :0, where people destroy and stomp on food when people would kill to eat this much in three weeks. like all the babies in burma right now and orphans who are drinking dirty water and fighting malnutrition. i can't, i can't, i can't understand it no matter how much it is part of any tradition.on an upbeat note, still loving your stuff. i'd love to know how to do the pen on a mug drawing for sure....

and that wasn't me being preachy or anything to you, cuz girl i know you love orange period and i like it too, but just reflecting.....i just can't find it in my heart to justify stomping on food, if rotten that's one thing, but stomping on food when others are starving...we are so blessed to not know hunger or poverty....thanks.